I hate instagram's stupid algorithm

[smokesalty]

So, I've been posting on my current instagram account since 2018, and boy whatever the hell they're doing, I cannot keep up with it.

You're expected to be posting there daily for the hopes of the algorithm actually showing your followers your work, let alone to any new people. I used to try post often for the algorithm, but nah. It didn't help and I wasn't enjoying making my art when I was rushing to complete it. Some artists are able to post super often, but I've just kind of accepted that the algorithm is just gonna keep supressing my posts.

I now mainly update people on progress on my story, post my illustrations and reels when I have the energy to. I still think it's a good place for people to keep up with my comic work/illustrations if they like my stuff. I see it more of a gallery for my work than anything else. I've just stopped bothering with trying to appease the algorithm.

[Scarlet_Cryptid]

Yeah, this. There's no way I can keep up with a daily post, at least if it's all going to be new art. I could maybe post individual panels of my comic daily but... that's ALSO a lot of work, and a lot of individual files on my computer and just... no. Why. I have 52 followers. It's not worth it. So I post a new bit of comic-unrelated art on Tuesday, and a comic-related teaser on Saturday, and call it good. I refuse to play algorithm games.

[Lensing]

Instagram is kind of a disgusting platform. Everything is superficial and you have to follow formulas to get
recognition. Then you have to spend time daily on it creating for instagram, uploading it, writing the text,
checking how many likes you got. I think it´s better to get out of that treadmill, maybe keep the instagram
but only upload occasionally and upload it without checking the likes

[Llyrel]

Yeah, big mood. Tbh, I've kinda come to terms with the fact that I just can't keep up with the algorithm. It will only show my posts if I share them in the morning aaaaanddd... I'm at work at that time, so I can't really bother with Instagram at all XD sure, I could use their creator platform to schedule posts, but it irks me how I'm supposed to connect it to my FB page, so no thanks.

As of now, I just post reels of my WIPs when I don't have any finished artworks and actual panels as images once I'm done with them.

The thing that really irks me, though, is how Instagram seems to perfectly understand that I'm there as a comic artist, at least judging from the amount of ads targeted at comic creators I get. Yet EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. I'm trying to promote MY OWN comic, it will bury the freaking post

Low effort reel in which I show my work in progress but don't mention the title of the comic? Here, have 6k+ views!
Completely unrelated, extremely low quality art posted just to keep up with the algorithm? 12k views, wheee!
...Promotional reel I spent 2 hours putting together which has nice looking animations, info about the comic and where to find it and all the webcomic related tags? KILL IT WITH FIRE!

...Seriously, I hate it

[LCT_m_a_d]

I like being a hidden boss

[NickRowler]

I do better on Instagram than Twitter, but that is not saying a lot.

I guess what you are suppose to do in Instagram is spam hashtags, some of the popular creators have like 25 of them on each post. It seems so weird to me to add hashtags like "art" and "digital" along with "digital art", it sort of seems obnoxious in a way.

I am not sure how you are suppose to use it to promote stuff. you can't really post hyperlinks.

I sort of ended up using it to mostly post my old art, seeing how most people don't usually look at DeviantArt (or my Twitter).

[sushy00]

I post on Instagram too but I don't try winning the algorhithm. It is not possible for me to post that much and in that quality.

[Scarlet_Cryptid]

I guess what you are suppose to do in Instagram is spam hashtags, some of the popular creators have like 25 of them on each post. It seems so weird to me to add hashtags like "art" and "digital" along with "digital art", it sort of seems obnoxious in a way.

That's what I'm currently doing (my average comic-related post has 25-30 tags on it!), and most of my posts average between 10 and 22 likes. If obnoxious amounts of tags were all it took, I'd have much better numbers. I hope it doesn't have to do with posting video content, because I don't really have a way to do that, and I don't WANT to. And of course, as many people are saying, trying to post quality new content every day is ... not feasible.

I dunno. I've never had much success getting a following anywhere (350 followers after 17 years on Deviantart, 150 on Tumblr, not quite at 100 subscribers on Tapas yet, 46 on Webtoon) and I've avoided other platforms entirely (Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, etc.), so I'm not really expecting much traction.

[AmazementComics]

Yeah, the Instagram algorithm sucks balls. The posts that the user sees while scrolling through the feed are impacted by the latest Instagram algorithm. Due to specific signals, the algorithm puts the most relevant posts to the top, making them more visible for the user. The rest of the content is placed down. In my observation of the algorithm, I’ve come to three conclusions:

1. Relationship with the user relative to the account holder. After an interaction of a particular person with at least one of your posts, he/she will be more likely to see the rest of your content. Is what should ACTUALLY happen, but the same people coming back to visit your page, follower or not, isn’t guaranteed a like on a post.

2. The post is relevant. When the post is published on Instagram, the algorithm assigns a relevancy score to it. This influences which it shows in the entire feed.

3. Then there is Users’ interest. In this case, the signal depends on whether the person interacts with analogous accounts and posts while exploring Instagram. Other people who interact with similar content may see your posts as well.

It’s a real chore to get some semblance of a following on Instagram, and I’ve tried using the methods like hashtags and frequent postings. At this rate, i’d be lucky to get 15 likes on a post on a good day.

[powerplantanimations]

I usually post pictures of my comic Monday, Wednsday, and Friday.

But on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, I post TikTok vids on there.

Or snippets of my YouTube videos. I think you can get away with posting pics of pets which...

I should probably do more often ngl.

[sable40k]

Probably a good mental health decision. It sounds like people start making stuff just to appease instagram rather than what they really like way too often.

I'd like to add that a lot of times on these sites, I don't even get to see posts from the people I'm following! Instagram seems better than Twitter about this, but I still feel like I miss a lot.

[samiluu]

instagram is trash but at least I seem to be better at it than at twitter. Or maybe I have 3 followers on twitter but they all interact, which I don't see in instagram.
Honestly social media in general is trash

[Teira]

Yeah it’s not the greatest, yet I get more engagement on there than I do with Twitter.

[system]

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